A Buzz-Worthy Week at the Malaria Forum

Submitted by
Chris Helfrich
on
October 21, 2011

This week, Nothing But Nets traveled to one of our favorite cities: Seattle. We were part of the Malaria Forum hosted by one of our longtime partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which brought together global health experts from around the world. With so mandy smart and committed people together for the first time in several years, the Forum was bound to make some buzz-worthy headlines -- and it certainly did.

On Day 1, our partners at Roll Back Malaria released a fascinating new report on the great progress we’ve made to date. "Over the last decade, the rapid scale-up of a variety of malaria control interventions has saved an estimated 1.1 million lives in Africa alone, and reduced deaths from malaria by 38%." Additionally, Roll Back Malaria found that several nations are well on their way to being malaria-free. (Read the report here.)

Hear from Bill & Melinda Gates on the progress the world is making in the fight against malaria in this video:

For years, researchers have been trying to find a vaccine to prevent malaria -- and on Day 2 of the Forum, Bill Gates had big news to share:

The first-ever wide scale trial of a vaccine against malaria has had promising results, and scientists are on "the cusp of having the world's first malaria vaccine, which has the potential to significantly improve the outlook for children living in malaria endemic regions across Africa." While this vaccine won’t be ready for several more years -- it is a big step toward ending malaria for good. (Read more about the vaccine trials here.)

After three days, the Forum’s message became clear: we can’t stop now. Thanks to the work of the United Nations, governments, NGOs, corporations, scientists, and supporters just like you, we are making significant progress in the fight against malaria -- and we have to do more to end this deadly disease for good.

With more hours in the lab, more funding to life-saving programs like The Global Fund and the President’s Malaria Initiative, more partners committed to the global goal of ending malaria deaths, and more supporters helping us to send nets to save lives, we can win the fight against malaria. We hope you’ll join us!